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running a 16 bit installer in win7 64 bit home premium

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First post, by unstoppabro

Posted on 
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Rank Newbie
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Newbie

Hey all,

I recently found one of my favourite games from my childhood (operation: inner space, if anyone's interested) and downloaded it, however when i try to run the INSTALL.exe, I get the error message:
The version of the file is not compatible with the version of windows you're running.

I've tried all the different compatibility modes in properties but I always get the same message, so apparently they don't help.

I have heard that Microsoft have made a special Windows XP Mode and a virtual PC program which should help, but they are only available to win7 professional, enterprise and ultimate which is nice.

After a bit of searching I've tried running it in DOSbox, no joy, a couple of virtual machines but I don't really understand that, plus installing the whole of windows XP sounds like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut to me.

Does anyone have a solution for me?

Reply 1 of 1, by Dominus

Posted on 
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Rank DOSBox Moderator
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DOSBox Moderator

As much as that sounds a long way to go, Operation Inner Space works best in Windows 3.1x instlaled in Dosbox. Joystick works great (on NT based Windows, 2k, xp, vista, w7, there is no working joystick for Inner Space) and overall it's much more stable as I remember the game on a real windows 3.1x machine.
Unfortunately if you have the floppy version of the game, you will need to go the hard drive image way in dosbox. The copy protection of Inner Space doesn't work otherwise ;(
The game also was available on a CD-rom for which the Cd worked as copy protection check. That one works fine for dosbox/win3.x without a hard drive image.
As this is one of my all time favourites as well, feel free to ask for more help 😀

You can forget about making it work on a 64bit Windows. Not only the installer, also the game itself is pure 16bit and that will just not run.

Windows 3.1x guide for DOSBox
60 seconds guide to DOSBox
DOSBox SVN snapshot for macOS (10.4-11.x ppc/intel 32/64bit) notarized for gatekeeper

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